Tungsten disulfide is a typical layered transition metal disulfide with van der Waals force interaction between layers. Nanostructured WS₂ can be used in solar cells and field-effect transistors because of its enhanced catalytic performance, excellent optical conductivity and excellent friction properties.

Tungstate is a typical self-starting luminescent material. Its luminescent spectrum is very stable. Its intrinsic luminescent band is very wide and occupies most of the visible region. Cations in tungstate strongly affect the position of the emission band. Tungstates can be activated by some impurities which, when doped into tungstate lattices, can make them luminescent with special properties, such as magnesium.

Tungsten trioxide has excellent performances in electrochromic, catalytic and gas sensitivity. Tungsten bronze, a composite oxide of tungsten bronze, generally refers to metal oxides with deep metallic luster, and is usually metal conductor or metal semiconductor. Tungsten bronze general A_xWO₃, however, varies with the type and molar number of cations. The structure and color of the compounds will vary with the different values of A and X.

The traditional narrow band gap semiconductor is usually used as photosensitive material in infrared detectors. In order to improve the detection sensitivity, shorten the response time of devices and reduce the influence of background noise, the normal operation of these devices requires liquid nitrogen refrigeration environment, which greatly limits the application and working time of devices.